Page - 148 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

148 7.4 Ecosystem Services Cascade Model The Ecosystem Service Cascade Model details the links between biodiversity and human well-being (Haines-Young and Potschin 2010; Potschin and Haines-Young 2011). The model proposes causal pathways through which biodiversity benefits human well-being through ecosystem functions and services (Potschin and Haines- Young 2011) (see Fig.  7.4). These causal pathways are described as steps that cas- cade into one another. According to the Cascade Model, biophysical structures or processes are responsible for ecosystem functions, and ecosystem functions influ- ence ecosystem services, which, in turn, result in ecosystem benefits. The Ecosystem Service Cascade Model has an anthropocentric and utilitarian viewpoint of nature, meaning that an ecosystem service can only be a service if humans experience that service to be useful and beneficial (Haines-Young and Potschin 2010; Potschin and Haines-Young 2011). Thus, an ecosystem service is not a fundamental property of the ecosystem itself, but something that is useful to humans (Haines-Young and Potschin 2010). The Convention of Biological Diversity (United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity 1992) considers ecosystem ser- vices as a matter of societal choice in which different sectors of society may derive different economic, cultural and societal needs from ecosystems. Therefore, ecosys- tem services are not isolated from people’s needs (Haines-Young and Potschin 2010) and are defined as “something that changes the level of [human] well-being” (Haines-Young and Potschin 2010, p.  117). An ecosystem benefit is “something that directly impacts on the welfare of the people” (Haines-Young and Potschin 2010, p.  117). Ecosystem benefits represent the many ways biodiversity can contribute to human well-being (Mace et  al. 2012) through, for example, regulation of water quality for better drinking water, a more satisfying fishing trip (Haines-Young and Potschin 2010), improved human health (Sandifer et  al. 2015) or increased feelings Fig. 7.3 Mean ratings for perception of restorative qualities for different types of landscape in the Black Forest National Park (n  =  86) M. R. Marselle